Bc I'm laying here on our newly put together bed (our mattress and boxspring have been sitting on the floor in front of our headboard since august) and it feels wonderful and bc I feel the need to post something but feel too tired to think and bc i crave comments on my blog but won't get any (i know) unless I say anything first.

So the point here is to say hi. Please leave a me a note saying you were here. :) anyone can comment. you don't have to sign up for anything. Just click: Anonymous (and then sign you name bc you love me) :). gracias.

(this survey is from melissa's blog)

1. What time did you get up this morning? The dogs forgot to wake me up on time (they've been sleeping in and i need to staqrt setting my alarm again) 8:30 and out the door by 9:10

2. Diamonds or Pearls? i think pearls. i'm not sure tho'

3. What is the last film that you saw at the Cinema? Vantage Point or Persepolis depending on what you consider a cinema. Persepolis was at a much classier place than Vantage Point (which was at the mall)

4. What is your favorite TV show? Pushing Daisies! Wonderful whimsical show. Also I like Battle Star Gallactica and Terminator: THe Sara Connor Chronicles tho' I find

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Usually cereal. tho' if we're out of milk i have soy bacon instead.

6. What is your middle name? Cathleen (lewis).

7. What food do you dislike? mushrooms

8. What is your favorite CD? haven't had money for a cd in a long time but i did just get my ipod running again and i'm loving hi-ho mozart. :)

9. What kind of car do you drive? Honda Accord

10. Favorite sandwich? somethign toasted and warm a with pears.

11. What characteristic do you despise? Arrogance

12. Favorite item of clothing? comfy pants and my nightgown

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? I want to go EVERYWHERE in the world! Just give me the chance! :)

14. What color is your bathroom? ugh. a dirty sandy type color maybe a soft brown... i dont like it. i havent chosen what to paint it yet tho. so there it stands.

15. Favorite brand of clothing?Anthropologie or H&M

16. Where would you retire to? i dont want to think about retiring. i want to have something to retire from.

17. What was your most memorable birthday? Probably the birthday I shared with Alex at McDOnalds in the arch of the elevated trains of Vienna, complete with throne, crowns, magic show, my favorite doll, and friends. how great!

18. Favorite sport to watch? on tv? i'd rather watch a sport in person and I'd like to know someone who's playing... or i guess it should be the cubs or buckeyes.... i guess.

19. Favorite saying:

20. When is your birthday? 12/23

21. Are you a morning or night person? Do you get to claim either when you go to bed at 11 and get up at 7?

22. What is your shoe size? 6 or so... tho i foudn i coulde fit into the largest girls size as well... whatever number that is.

23. Pets? 4 of them. 2 dogs and 2 cats.

24. What did you want to be when you were little? An Indian Princess (as in iNDIA not Americans)

25. How are you today? Accomplished. Chiropractor, helped out family, sanded ceiling until just couldnt anymore, cleaned and cleaned, only sat while driving, now quite tired.

26. What is your favorite candy? ALmond Joy

27. What is your favorite flower? phlox

28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? I'm not sure... the true start of spring and consistent warm weather.

29. What are you listening to right now? Mozart

30. What was the last thing you ate? chicken pot pie

31. Do you wish on stars? Yes. Sometimes.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Ceyleon.

33. How is the weather right now? Cold and cold. Spitting little precipitation (some claim it might be snow buti've yet to see it). it'll be high fifties again before a week has gone by...

34. Favorite soft drink? Almdudler or cream soda

35. Favorite restaurant? Pei Wei or McAlister's.

36. Siblings? Yes, one "little" brother

37. Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving, St Patrick's Day, My Aniverrsary

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Hmm, not sure. I had a favorite doll that looked like Laura from LIttle House on the Prairie.

39. Summer or winter? summer but you gotta have a good winter too. or its just sad.

40. Hugs or Kisses? Hugs!

41. Coffee or tea? mostly tea. i just found a new favorite Cinnamon Cardamom from Republic of Tea. Go try it!

42. Chocolate or vanilla? vanilla! i could go for a vanilla steamer right now!

43. When was the last time you cried? Ummm... I don't know. Ask my husband.

44. What is under your bed? Probably my cat: Calvin.

45. Who is the friend that you have had the longest? Karla.

46. What did you do last night? Baked Kaiserschmarren (im learning austrian cuisine finally) watched Sara Connor Chronicles, looked at apts online and talked about our garden with walt.

47. Favorite smell? cinnamon, lebkuchen, aldi, and citrus

48. What are you afraid of? being alone

49. Salty or sweet? I like both... together.

50. How many keys are on your ring? I'm not sure... 2 for cars, 3 for the house, and a key chain. i think that's it.

51. How many years at your current job? Less than a year.

52. Favorite day of the week? Thursday

53. How many towns have you lived in (as an adult)? Three.

54. Do you make friends easily? Yes, I think so... tho' not if you mean effortlessly. i'm friendly but not naturally outgoing. so it takes some work but not such horrible work if you know what i mean.

TO RECAP:
So the point here is to say hi. Please leave a me a note saying you were here. :) anyone can comment. you don't have to sign up for anything. Just click: Anonymous (and then sign you name bc you love me) :).

my thought

We went to see The Great Debators the other night. Let me rephrase that. It sounds too easy. We drove 35 miles, changed our route three times and drove fairly quickly in order to avoid 3 different trains, accidentally ended up on a different highway than we'd planned, and STILL made it on time to the only movie theater within 25 miles (acc. to movies.com) still showing the film. And I think it was worth it. It's an incredible film. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, seek it out.

Here's my thought, if there's only one reason for us living in the South it may just be this: to become racially aware, to learn what Christ would have us do with it in our broken world, and then to act.

All of our interactions with friends, family and southern culture push us towards dissatisfaction with racial relations as they are. Places like our church are helping us to think through these issues more constructively, helping me realize that this isn't simply a southern thing, racism didn't disappear when laws finally made it illegal and the playing field wasn't magically made level. This breaks Christ's heart and it ought to break ours as well.

These thoughts are still swirling around within me. Nothing conclusive or doctrinal yet. ;) Tho' I suppose that may not be what's needed.

a lengthy link

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts. Also, I'm so sorry that this one may end up only being a link. But since the wall with our tv cable was knocked down Wednesday and I haven't watched the news since I just found out today that Romney dropped out of the presidential race. (I was quite in shock! Not even NPR mentioned it on Friday for the good hour that I listened. Oh well.) So of course I had to go rooting around the internet for the all the information I could find. I came across this article on Huckabee. I enjoyed reading an article written not by political pundits or evangelical Christians. It's good to hear from another voice. If you can make it through I'd love to hear your thoughts.

As for me, I'm excited about this candidate. He seems to be a man of grace who sincerely cares for the poor. I read once (in response to the death of Jerry Falwell and his looming legacy) that Christians are standing up to say that there is a new christian activism that must take place. While we still do care for the unborn children we can't stop caring once they exit the womb. We can't fight to keep them in this world then deny them adequate healthcare, education, food or shelter. And while I don't agree with absolutely everything Huckabee stands for I do think that he is a candidate that understands this. I don't think he should be counted out of the race just quite yet. (for an interesting--at least to me-- commentary on why so much of the news seems to have counted him out already check out the article above.)

Sooo, sorry for the lengthy link. I'll have to post pictures and updates soon. We've added space to our living and dining rooms, began sanding off the popcorn ceiling in the original living room area (lotsa dirty dusty pictures there!) and began major work for a vegetable garden that my gardening magazine told me I should plant already (woah! the southern growing season really is something. grass is already turning green and bulbs are popping and then growing fast out of the ground. I hadn't even dared to think of spring and it seems to have arrived. definitely surprised). Anyway, I'm off to make dinner, shower off the ceiling dust from my body and wash my clothes so that I'll have something to wear tomorrow.

Good night and shabbat shalom!

a year in review

every year seems to be punctuated by a new move, home, daily life. I don't know yet if this coming year will be any different. But as of yet, (drum roll please) there are no concrete plans to continue the pattern. There are, however, also no plans to live in the delta for the rest (or even a considerable amount of the rest) of our lives. The jobs just don't pan out for either of us. Sad, but true.

So here we are: renovating a house, spending time with family, helping dorothy out with the kids and her cleaning (she's going to a hire a maid, deborah! soon i will only help her with her kids, jk), and living the basic day to day.

Today's church. I love our church! Sundays are wonderful like that. I get to be a part of a vibrant & diverse (something you don't see much of in memphis) congregation and listen to the word of God delved deeply into in a church where the pastor has not forgotten that the point of Scripture is to impact lives. This church doesn't want you to stop at simply hearing the word, learning great systems and doctrines, but knows that you can study the word directly and God has something to show you... right there in that very passage. I feel so blessed to have found a happy medium. It's like I can breath again. No silly proof-texting. No heady intellectualism. For awhile I settled for the latter. At least then we were hearing the Word of God instead of cute stories with a verse thrown in here or there. But praise God for showing us Fellowship (and thank you, mom, for insisting that we try it out). I can't wait to get more involved! The next step is on the 27th when we go to the discovery dinner and learn more about the church personally. We'll see what follows that.

Tomorrow begins the new semester at University of Memphis. It took quite a bit of finagling to get walter squared away for classes but we did it and tomorrow walter starts three undergrad classes that qualify him for grad courses in the fall.
1. mechanics of materials
2. mechanics of fluids (i think...)
3. heat transfer (again, think i'm remembering this correctly)
basically it's the weeding out class from sophomore, junior, and senior years of mechanical engineering... then he's qualified to be a grad student! :) So yeah, it'll be a trying semester but I'm confident that he can do it (now just to convince him ;) ) It only took faxing records from Cedarville & Wheaton, meeting with the head of the engineering department, signing up for undergrad classes as a grad student, getting another MMR shot, and lots of calls to the help desk. All this while sending out resumes to every company that excites walter. It's been a busy couple of days. But it's done! (hooray!)

On Monday we're going to figure out if we (ourselves) will push the wall back into our garage giving us room for a laundry room and a larger kitchen and living room or if a contractor will do it for us within the next few weeks. This all while we wait for the windows to come in... the windows home depot promised us two weeks ago. Alas, the shell for our sun room looks beautiful. I absolutely can't wait for all the light that's going to shine into our home and the plants I'll be able to grow.

I'm sorting through things (both physically and mentally), figuring out the best next move (not to a new state or anything... I know, with us, this statement could be confusing), and honing some skills. More on that to come, I think.

But for now it's time to get on with today. My goals for this year (as of right now) are to develop a daily routine and to stick to it and to do the exercises that my chiropractor's assigned. Should be doable. We'll see how it goes.

to make it more worth your while ;)

My body doesn't know what time zone I'm in so I'll have to make this short.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! :)

Walter and I (and the dogs) had a grand time in Ohio visiting with friends and family, celebrating birthdays and holidays, reveling in snow flurries on my birthday, and remembering the life of my grandma lewis. deborah's cats were not quite so thrilled but were still cuddly when we came upstairs into their terrain. deborah was also very forgiving. ;)

We trekked on up to Chicago on Thursday. We did so by way of Lafayette, yummy tea, conversation, and dinner with friends (yay, Dawn and Travis!) and drove into Wheaton to Christmas lights and green grass... sadly, that's what we left in Arkansas. I was hoping for snow. Luckily, it didn't stay that way for long.

This morning we woke up to the sound tiny snow flakes hitting the sky light and when it finally began to really come down I convinced mom to take the dogs on a walk with me. They were wonderful. Didn't complain about the cold or snow at all. :) They were just too busy smelling every tree, newspaper, and mailbox. They're such country dogs! Alas, we're going to have to work harder on socializing them. Some other time. They found a bunny and tried to make friends with some dogs. They pulled us along on the slippery sidewalks and then made it home in one piece. (phew!) So we took them into the back yard to let them run and jump and play in the snow, got some cute pictures and then brought them in for nap time (they're so cute when they're exhausted). Such sweet puppies!

This afternoon I spent time with Karla and Ian (can't believe how much he's grown!), Walter enjoyed his Christmas presents, and mom took a nap. We're enjoying movies, hot chocolate, toasted/spiced pecans, and warm meals in one of my favorite cities in the US. How wonderful to have the chance to spend time with family. :) Hooray for Christmas!

Also, just as a side thought, when we come home we should almost have a sun room on our house. Soon we'll have windows just off the dining room! That will be very exciting. :D

post

walter has my sewing machine in pieces (just a few) and our house smells of homemade coconut shrimp, donuts, and peppermint. walter promises that i'll get to use my sewing machine again. just thought you needed an update. :)

amigurumi

So I'm in my pajamas and hungry for lunch but I just had to say a quick 'hello!' :)

I haven't done a whole lot lately: gone to Dorothy's to help out there and hold babies (yay!), go to the chiropractor (today will be the 4th day in a row, i think my back is starting to feel better), a little Christmas shopping and baking (i am all about baking), and a whole lot of knitting. Yay knitting!

I've made some ornaments, most of a twirly ribbon scarf (I need another circular needle to finish it off), one super silky present (did you know you could buy silk yarn?!), and three attempts at one super cool scarf. The first time I ripped it out I hadn't gone too far. No sweat. This last time I was quite a ways in before I realized that the mistake I'd corrected showed more than I'd thought. I want this scarf to be gift worthy. I may gift it only to myself but I'd like to be able to give it and that just wouldn't happen with the bulge I most recently discovered. Alas. At least this is a fun and soothing project. I don't really mind doing it again and again. Also, Walter went out and bought me a set of bamboo needles for this project and I love how smooth and soft they feel. All in all, it's great.

I was perusing the internet ... oh an hour or so ago... when I accidentally rediscovered AMIGURUMI. i love these things! Amigurumi is Japanese for crocheted doll, I think. And I can't wait to get started on this next project! Just simple little dolls with millions of millions of possibilities. Seriously, you should check out this flickr group. They've posted pictures of tons of completely diff. amigurumi all made with the same exact pattern. lots of fun. anyway, i'd better get on with the day.